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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24087643">Of Late Nights and French Movies</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/pleasantnonsense/pseuds/pleasantnonsense'>pleasantnonsense</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Insomnia, Nightmares, Sibling Bonding, donnie knows french, one (1) curse word, strangulation mentioned</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 22:08:42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,303</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24087643</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/pleasantnonsense/pseuds/pleasantnonsense</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After Donnie is woken by a nightmare following Many Unhappy Returns, Donnie and Leo take comfort in each other's presence, and a few shared words.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Donatello &amp; Leonardo (TMNT)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>168</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Of Late Nights and French Movies</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I wrote this very early in the morning when I definitely should have been sleeping, not proof read or beta'd, but fuck it, I'm posting it because if I don't post it now I never will.</p><p>based on a post i saw on tumblr by boficionado</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><em>He can’t breathe</em>.</p><p>Metal arms around his throat.</p><p><em>No-</em> they were purple vines.</p><p>Metal.</p><p>Vines.</p><p>
  <em>Metal.</em>
</p><p>
  <strong> <em>Vines.</em> </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>He can’t <strong>breathe</strong>¬</em>
</p><p>         Donnie eyes shot open and he gasped for air, still unable to get any oxygen to his lungs as his heart pumped too fast in his chest. He furiously untangled himself from his bed sheets and threw his feet over the side of the bed once he was free. The cold of the floor helped ground him if only a little, but his throat still felt constricted.</p><p>He reached up and tried to pull away whatever was restricting his airflow, but he only found his pyjama shirt’s collar. He undid at least half of the buttons of the shirt, ignoring the sound of a button hitting the floor as he was a bit too rough with the fabric. It was fine, he could fix it later, all that mattered right now was that he could <em>breathe. </em></p><p>He yanked the shirt down to sit loosely around his upper arms, too distraught to bother with actually taking it off.  He sucked in a lungful of air, desperate to be rid of the burning in his chest. He sat quietly, the only sound in his room his ragged breathing.</p><p>His voice was course as he tried to reassure himself.</p><p>          “It was just a dream…”</p><p>But it wasn’t. Just months ago, he had felt the same desperation for air as one of Draxum’s vines had closed off his throat. And just before that, the feeling of his own tech constricting his airways by Kendra’s hand still haunted him.</p><p><em>Clearly,</em> it still haunted him.</p><p>His head felt clearer with the oxygen now returning to his lungs, he finished unbuttoning his shirt, letting it to sit open over his shoulders.</p><p>His head was pounding, and his throat felt raw despite it only being a dream, this time anyway, and with the memories of the <em>not actually just</em> dreams still fresh in his mind he felt that his chances of getting back to sleep that night were slim to none.</p><p>Donnie grabbed his phone, noting the time only enough to recall that it was very early morning, before he left his room.</p><p>The halls leading to the main atrium were dark, his family having gone to bed even before he had earlier that night.</p><p>Though, he wasn’t as surprised as he should be to see lights shining into the hall when he finally got to the atrium doorway. They flashed in that way only late-night TV in a dark house could, and when Donnie rounded the corner, he saw Leo curled up in front of the TV with a hot drink and a blanket wrapped around his legs. The TV was set to what seemed to be a foreign film, with the volume down low and subtitles flashing across the screen.</p><p>They made brief eye contact as Donnie made his way across the atrium and into the kitchen.</p><p>He made quick work of getting a glass of water, which he downed immediately following a painkiller, and then used the water left in the electric kettle to make his own mug of tea. For once he made the healthy decision to forgo coffee late at night.</p><p>Once his own tea was steeped, he disposed of the bag and went back to the living room to see that Leo had readjusted his position so that there was room for Donnie on the couch.</p><p>He said nothing as he set his mug on the coffee table and laid down beside his brother, resting his head on Leo’s lap and pulling the blanket from off the back of the couch over his body. It was only a moment before Leo’s hand was rubbing Donnie’s head, massaging gentle circles over his temple. They stayed like that for a while, only the dull sounds from the TV breaking the silence as neither of them followed the movie. Donnie had deduced the film was in French after realizing he understood the what the quiet voices of the characters were saying as a dying man’s son spoke about monetary affairs to a group of doctors.</p><p>Donnie would occasionally move to take a sip of his tea, and every time he’d curl back up with his head in Leo’s lap. Leo’s idle ministrations a continuous reminder of where Donnie was whenever his mind would wander back to his dream.</p><p>As the main character was escorted from a hospital to a cabin by a lake, Donnie spoke up.</p><p>“Insomnia?” He asked. His voice was nonchalant, tired, but Leo knew him well enough to catch the amount of care behind the single-worded question.</p><p>“She’s a bitch.” Leo replied just as simply. “Nightmares?” He added afterwards.</p><p>Donnie felt a tightness in his throat as his mind flashed back to the moments from his dreams, but he was quickly brought back by the feel of Leo’s hand on his forehead.</p><p>          “Yeah.”</p><p>“Do you want to talk about it?”</p><p>“Not really.” Donnie’s voice was barely above a whisper, and he moved from the topic. “Is the tea I got for you helping at all?”</p><p>“Not really.”</p><p>And then it was quiet again.</p><p>The two brothers laid together, cast in the gentle glow of the TV, and watching as a man died surrounded by his friends and family.</p><p>Donnie finished off the last bit of his tea, feeling little to no affect from something that was supposed to help induce drowsiness and he made a mental note to try a new brand.</p><p>On screen the main character finally passed away, and the quiet, melancholy tone of the film's current scene offset the comfortable silence between the two brothers. Each took the moment of reprieve in their usually very loud home. They were so used to the rooms being full of sounds and life, if not music, or movies then laughter or yelling, and the quiet of the night with the more rambuncious brothers soundly sleeping was enjoyable. But the middle brothers would both be lying if they said the lack of sleep wasn’t starting to get to them.</p><p>“Maybe we should consider therapy.” Leo broke the silence as the credits begun to roll over the screen. “You can do it online and they don’t even have to see your face anymore.”</p><p>“I think the lies we would have to come up with to justify your intense fear of the lair getting broken into and the events leading to me being strangled twice would be a bit hard to explain to a psychiatrist. Not to mention our <em>daddy issues</em>.” Donnie was only half joking about the last part.  </p><p>“As long as our nights get a bit shorter is that really such a heavy price to pay?” Leo’s voice was humorous, but Donnie could hear a note of desperation behind it.</p><p>The ease at which they had fallen into this routine was from countless nights of similar outcomes. Donnie falling asleep only to be woken up mere hours later to find Leo hadn’t been able to sleep at all. While the nightmares about being strangled were new, they were only the newest in a long list of nightmares he had suffered from for years. And Leo had suffered from insomnia for about the same period of time.</p><p>“Maybe I’ll look into it.” Donnie eventually said. “Or maybe there’s some Yokai group therapy session that we can sign up for.” He joked.</p><p>“I do know at least one portal into the mystic city now, though your germ-hating butt will not appreciate it.”</p><p>“I’d swim in garbage if it meant getting a few more hours of sleep every night.”</p><p>“Noted.” Leo replied as he begun scrolling through the lists of movies for something new to watch.</p><p>“Wait- you chose that movie?” Donnie asked.</p><p>“I was in a French mood.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The movie I was describing is Les Invasions Barbares, which is actually a pretty good french-canadian film, I recommend it though the humour is pretty aged. </p><p>Also I take requests on tumblr! ~ talesfromthesewer , so hit me up</p></blockquote></div></div>
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